Sets that disappointed you

[Bioman]

Whenever you’re getting yourself a new Lego set, you definitely have an expectation what it’s gonna be like. Maybe your expectations are high, maybe they’re low. What are sets from any Lego theme that did not live up to your expectations? Doesn’t mean that the sets are necessarily bad, just that they didn’t deliver.

One of these sets for me is Technic 42070, the 6x6 tow truck.

This is 2017’s flagship titan set. I don’t actually own it myself, but both a friend and my cousin have it. I’ve got decent experience with it.

The truck is advertised as an “all terrain” vehicle, and its biggest issue is… the fact that it can’t really go offroad. It mainly comes down to these 3 factors:

• The drivetrain has non-lockable differentials, meaning that whenever any wheel loses ground contact, the entire vehicle stops and only that one wheel spins in the air.
• The outriggers sit too low and can easily get caught in obstacles.
• The single XL motor is strong, but not strong enough for rough terrain.

Plus, the towing arm is rather flimsy and bends under any load.
Other criticisms that I personally don’t find too bad is the fact that you need to manually switch between functions on the truck (which kinda defeats the purpose of a remote control vehicle), or that it doesn’t have return to center steering.

Despite all of this, it’s still a set I really want to get - in fact, it’s pretty much on top of my wanted list. I think it looks absolutely stunning with awesome colors and good shaping, plus some of its most glaring issues are fairly easy to fix with some modifications. Tow trucks are just generally among my favorite type of Lego vehicles.

Honorable mention goes to 2021’s offroad buggy, 42124:

Basically the same issue as the tow truck, it’s an “offroad” vehicle that can’t really go off the road, mainly because it doesn’t have enough torque to handle most terrain. It works fine on flat surfaces and is rather fast, however the steering is not very accurate which means you’ll often bump into stuff.
Also, the single joystick control in the app was absolutely atrocious when the set first released, but they luckily improved that in an update. App control is still bad, though.

[Minethuselah]

@Bioman

Honorable mention goes to 2021’s offroad buggy, 42124:

Yep, that sentiment is echoed from me. The controls were disappointing. This was my first Powered UP set and it really let me down - the hub was difficult to work with, the motors were weak, and overall the system was just inferior to Power Functions. The pink, which is probably my favorite part of the set, is really lacking in quantity, with only some large Technic panels representing the nice color.

Next up…

Set 21135: The Crafting Box 2.0. For a while I was a big Lego Minecraft fan and this set was a Christmas present, so I feel a bit bad dissing it, but I must say some of the models were… fake, for lack of better words.

To explain a bit better - the set is divided into 5 bags, one for each figure (Steve, Slime, Creeper, Cow, Horse). Each bag has instructions for 3 different models, meaning there’s a total of 15 possible models. About half of those are pretty good and in the image there are some of the better models, but the 2 unshown models for both the horse and cow bags not only take liberties with Lego Minecraft geometry but also look really bad.

Next up…

Set 10275: Elf Club House. A bit of context for this one: my mom has always been a big fan of the holiday-related Lego sets, from Monster Fighters to those Christmas Creator Expert sets way back when. When this came out, she was hyped to have us build it, but when it was done it didn’t really feel at-home with the rest of the stuff we had. It felt too awkward in proportion - the bottom story feels smaller than it should be because the roof hangs over it so much, and the upper story feels like a receding hairline because of how high the vertex of the roof is.

The little side builds are also unnecessary. The computer is nice and well-built, but there isn’t a need for it in the north pole (the screen says “nice list,” but I believe we already had one of those on a clipboard from a Santa’s workshop set released a few years prior). The rocket sled is funny but why would the rockets be attached to the sled and not the deer? Lastly, the tree is really ugly. It’s unique at least, but it feels too dense. Not the worst tree (that title belongs to the tree of an otherwise amazing set, the spectacular Winter Village Fire Station).

I don’t often get disappointing sets because I generally know what I’m getting into when I purchase something or receive something, but these ones stood out to me.

[Wekua]

@Minethuselah

but why would the rockets be attached to the sled and not the deer

This makes it even funnier. They’ll be bouncing along the roof like cans off the back of a newlywed couple’s car

Also tiny ship is a total win

[DuneToa]

@Minethuselah

why would the rockets be attached to the sled and not the deer?

I believe that is a reference to Elf, which features a rocket-propelled sled.

[MooCowsRock]

I buy mostly Ninjago sets, and as you can probably guess, there have been some huge winners and some decidedly meh-ers over the years.

First up is 70602 Jay’s Elemental Dragon from 2016.

Admittedly, the main wave of Skybound sets from which this one comes was generally lackluster, and I bought this because it seemed like the best at the time (and also I like Jay). Once I built it, though, I was disappointed at how square and chunky the dragon is. It’s a lightning dragon, but nothing about its body shape communicates that, in my opinion. Also, half of each wing is fixed in place, which never made sense to me and frankly makes it look goofy when you move the outer half.

There’s also 70643 Temple of Resurrection from 2018.

I was kind of biased against this set from the start on account of heavily disliking Sons of Garmadon, the season from which it originates, and honestly I wasn’t expecting too much from just looking at the pictures. But in hand it’s just… boring. Definitely the weakest of the Ninjago location sets I own. There’s not really anything to it besides the main room where the Oni Masks are and the largely empty cave underneath. The folding roof function is cool at first, but (apart from the fact that it’s pointless in-story) it’s impossible to have any minifigures standing in the main room while the roof is folded down, which just cuts the space for play in half. Functions should contribute a net increase to play value, not add some and negate some…

(Also I was salty that the panels behind the masks were stickered instead of printed–the Fire Temple and Battle for Ninjago City both had beautiful printed panels of the same size and I still don’t understand why they didn’t do the same for these. The whole set is pretty reliant on stickers, actually.)

For non-Ninjago sets, I can’t help but think of 8080 Undersea Explorer from 2010.

I got this when I was in the target audience and was disappointed even then, if that tells you anything. The rigid legs really kill it for me. Yes, they allow the mech to transform into a submarine with wheels, but really I always found both configurations odd instead of cool. The whole robot is just kind of unwieldy, and as I recall the flick-fire missile holders kept falling off. The sea serpent is good, though!

Lastly I’ve got 8189 Magma Mech, also from 2010 (gee, that was kind of a bum year!).

This is actually just a bad set. The legs fall off at the knees constantly, there isn’t enough articulation to effectively use the claw (which should be horizontal if you want to use it anyway!), and the drill/water shooter is just… there…? Young MooCowsRock got it because it was the cheapest way to get all three colors of small lava monsters, but I really should’ve just saved up or pooled my money with my brother to get 8191 Lavatraz (though that doesn’t look spectacular either). The only good things to come of this set were the lava monster, the miner minifigure, and the (exclusive?) chrome silver tread links, which I later used for the helmet on this Sauron MOC. That redeemed the Magma Mech a little, at least.

[DuneToa]

@MooCowsRock

8080 Undersea Explorer from 2010

Ngl I actually like this set. One of my brothers has it, and it’s honestly the best transforming Lego set I’ve seen. Both the rover and mech modes are pretty good.

[MooCowsRock]

That’s fair. It certainly wasn’t the worst mech from 2010. =P

[TheJerminator]

@MooCowsRock

the (exclusive?) chrome silver tread links,

I’ve always found it interesting that Lego recoloured the tread link to Metallic Silver for such a minor use. I’m pretty sure that the Metallic colours require an entirely new mold to be made so that the part can be molded with slightly different dimensions before the metallic coating is applied.